'Be careful' warning accompanies latest Linux kernel

The next Linux kernel has been released with a tidy little warning from Linus Torvalds for code committers to pay more attention and be more careful.

Linux Kernel 2.6.35 has been kicked out after Torvalds said he could see very little reason to offer any more release candidates.

Features include changes to networking with Receive Packet Steering (RPS) and Receive Flow Steering (RFS) designed to boost performance — both contributed by Google. You can see a list of full changes here.

Torvalds pulled up contributors over an apparent willingness to submit code and features to the next version of Linux that's not yet stable.

He said Andrew Morton — one of the kernel's lead maintainers — had been "pretty unhappy" with the stability of "linux-next", as an unusable Linux-next makes it harder for Morton to do his job.

Worse, Torvalds said this made him unhappy, because people seemed to think that if something's been in Linux-next for several months, something could be merged.

"Things that go in there should be more or less ready for merging (with an emphasis on 'more'), and we need to keep that tree in working order. If you're nervous about the stability of your work, you should just admit that it's not ready to be merged, shouldn't go in the next release cycle, and shouldn't be in linux-next yet and make life harder for people like Andrew — or for the other more careful linux-next submitters." ®